Your First Car

[WildBill]

datsun 210 honey bee....I could go all week on two dollars of gas.

Since you admitted it first, the first new car that I bought was a 1975 Datsun B210 hatchback. I had just gotten got my first job out of college and paid for it $2,300 cash. It was a basic four-speed, with no frills, not even an AM radio. It was a real "muscle car", sporting a four-cylinder engine with 1,200 cc displacement.

During the gas shortage in the 70s, while others were waiting in long lines, I could drive it for at least two weeks without having to fill the tank. After putting on more than 100,000 miles on it, I sold it for $1,000. My brother bought a used one a couple of years later. It finally gave up the ghost after 400,000 miles.

[rdcrags]

I suppose everyone has fond memories of his or her first car. Mine was a 1939 chevrolet. "4 on the floor", before the term was used. Bought it from an uncle for $100.

[rmr1923]

my first "car" was a truck, a '93 GMC extended cab handed down by my dad. technically my first car was a junker '82 Monte Carlo that i gutted and turned into a dirt track super stocker. i tore that car down to the bare frame and built it back up all by myself and was proud as heck when i started winning races with it (i raced at Texana Raceway in Edna, incase anyone knows where that's at). that got to be an expensive hobby so i stopped racing a few years ago, although the car is still sitting in my dad's barn.

i sold the GMC and got an '02 Mustang GT and after paying it off in '07 i did lots of fun stuff with it... forged rotating assembly, ported heads (before Trick Flow came out with heads for the 4.6), custom grind Comp Cams, full exhaust, and about 10 psi of boost via Vortech centrifugal blower (along with a bunch of other supporting upgrades). it put down about 425hp at the rear wheels when it was last on the dyno (in 95 degree Houston summer weather), that was a hell of a fun car to drive but was VERY high maintenance... last summer was the first time i've seen a harmonic balancer come apart. sold it about a year ago and got an '07 Chevy 1500 crew cab and love it.

[puma guy]

1950 Dodge panel truck. Paid $80 for it to a guy who drove it from Alaska! You had to hold the shifter while in first gear or it would jump out of gear. Brush painted pale green and white, I painted black Playboy bunny logos behind the windows and we called it the "Bunny Bus". Built like a tank. I once had all four wheels off the ground doing something I shouldn't have been doing. We both survived!

[brandrum]

datsun 210 honey bee....I could go all week on two dollars of gas.

Since you admitted it first, the first new car that I bought was a 1975 Datsun B210 hatchback. I had just gotten got my first job out of college and paid for it $2,300 cash. It was a basic four-speed, with no frills, not even an AM radio. It was a real "muscle car", sporting a four-cylinder engine with 1,200 cc displacement.

During the gas shortage in the 70s, while others were waiting in long lines, I could drive it for at least two weeks without having to fill the tank. After putting on more than 100,000 miles on it, I sold it for $1,000. My brother bought a used one a couple of years later. It finally gave up the ghost after 400,000 miles.

Wow!!...hail the mighty bee!!!...I'm sure mine would would have done the same had I not wrecked it....I couldn't get that that thing to quit running no matter what I did to it prior to that.

[bigred90gt]

I actually bought my first car later in life than most. I just never understood what the big deal was about riding the bus. It was a 1992 mustang sedan. Not one of the cool mustangs, I literally had the dorkiest year of production for the mustang series. Still, it was super reliable and I drove it into the ground. I have only owned two cars in my life. The mustang and now an old ford bronco I bought second hand. I am going to try and keep the bronco until the good Lord comes calling. Of course, I am a motorcycle rider...but that is another thread.

There has never been a Mustang sedan made by Ford, and the 1987-1993 Mustangs were some of the best looking mustangs, aside from late 60's early 70's.

My first vehicle was a 1988 Ford Ranger that my parents bought me for $1200 when I was 17. It had an intermittent starting problem, so probably 75% of the time, I had to turn the key on, and jump it across the solenoid with a screwdriver. After a couple of months, we took it back and had it fixed. One day, it was raining, and I pulled up at a friends house, and jumped out real quick. When I got ready to leave for work, it wouldnt start (the rain had stopped), so I hopped out, popped the hood, and hit the solenoid with a screwdriver, not realizing that the reason it wouldnt start was because it was still in drive. Well, it lurched forward, and sandwiched me between it and my friends Honda Accord, with the bumpers on my knee. Thankfully, my friend had the presence of mind before this to put the rod up that holds the hood open, or else when I let go of it, it would have slammed down on my head, probably pushing my face or neck into the fan.

[MoJo]

My first "car" was a '49 Chevrolet pickup three on the tree huge in-line 6 - - - 87 horsepower, with about two tons of torque. I never had to change oil it burned and dripped it out so fast that I'd pull in to a service station and tell the guy to fill the oil and check the gas. After I went into the Army my brother drove it until the transmission gave out and it was sold. My first new car was a '69 Mustang fastback with a 302 and three on the floor I put over 125,000 miles on it and sold it to a guy who said he was going to restore it.

[Scott in Houston]

I love Mustangs. I had this car in 1986 (high school). It was a '65. Loved this car...

This car ended up costing me hundreds of thousands of dollars because it started a love affair of cars which has cost me a fortune over the last 20 years.

Anyway, here is my first love :)

[fannypacker]

Old timer here. A 1941 Chevy I bought from the English teacher's Mom. $600 in 1953. I was 16.

[baldeagle]

This was my first car

And this is my new car

[gdanaher]

1963 VW Beetle with a well used 40 horse engine and a recent paint job. Drove it 100000 more miles, fixed a bearing in the transmission and kept the engine running. Sold it for what I had paid for it to begin with. Saw it later with flared out fenders and more paint, but the same license plate. Wish I had it today. It was the best car I ever owned, at least at the time it was! Would really love to have it back though. Nice project car to restore.

[UpTheIrons]

The first vehicle I drove regularly after getting my license was our farm truck - a 1974 Chevy pickup with a 454 and 4 on the floor. I loved that truck, even though there was no A/C, a busted radio, and duct tape keeping the seat vinyl together.

Once graduation got close, my folks sprung for a 1984 Plymouth K car. I can't say enough about that car, because what I'd say would violate enough rules to get me banned before this post would show up on the page. What a total piece of junk! It was so bad, that after 8 months of ownership (much of which was involved with repairs and waiting for the engine to cool down from vapor lock), my dad took it back to the dealer and demanded his money back - which they gave him, somewhat sheepishly.

The first car with my name on the title was a 1988 Chevy Spectrum (from fun to practicality), and I drove the wheels off that car and sold it to a bunch of seminary students from Haiti in 1999 when I graduated from the seminary. It was well north of 150K miles, but it still ran well, even though the A/C no longer worked and 4 years of living up north had done a number on the body panels what with all the road salt in winter.

I still wish my dad had kept the truck - I'd restore it, but he sold it to some guy for $400 about 2 years before I was in a position to give it a home.

ETA: fixed some spelling

[jimlongley]

Once graduation got close, my folks sprung for a 1984 Plymouth K car. I can't say enough about that car, because what I'd say would violate enough rules to get me banned before this post would show up on the page. What a total piece of junk!

My daughter's first car, bought for her by her husband after she got her driver's license (which she did not get until after she got married, she didn't keep her end of the deal when she lived at home) was a K car, and it was a total piece of junk. A friend of mine was the Parts Department Manager at the local Plymouth dealer, and I was able to pull a string or two to get through to people who are normally insulated from contact with the unwashed public ("How did you get this number?") and eventually Plymouth backed down and agreed to replace the car. The car spent more time in the shop in the first four or five months she had it, than it did in her hands, unfortunately never for the same problem three times which would have triggered NY State's Lemon Law. Broken motor mount; bent bracket under the dash, which is where the brake light switch was mounted, wouldn't steer straight or hold alignment, stalling at lights, and other stuff, that's all I remember.

The day before she was to take the car in for replacement, she was rear ended at a red light. The other driver said she didn't have any brake lights, which was true because the brake light switch bracket had broken, but she had been stopped at the light, fully stopped, before he rammed her, and that indicated, since that was his statement to the responding police officer, that he was paying no attention to the traffic light, or her manual signal, her arm out the window, which put him directly at fault.

He drove her into the intersection where she was t-boned, luckily all of the grandkids were properly secured and nobody was hurt, but the car was totalled. Eventually his insurance paid and she got a new car, but what a hassle.

[USA1]